Archive for September, 2013

September 20, 2013 — Penn State backed out of wellness penalties this week after protests from faculty and employees continued to attract unwanted national attention. President Rodney Erickson announced the change, saying: We have decided to suspend the $100-per-month surcharge so that people who are uncomfortable with any aspect of the survey will not feel as if they are […]

September 19, 2013 — All too seldom, nutrition and obesity research informs the policies aimed at solving problems of obesity, nutrition, and related health issues. Most everyone eats and weighs themselves, so dismissing research you don’t like is easy. Personal experience can trump the research. So, we convince ourselves that all we need to do is tell those people […]

September 18, 2013 — The politics of obesity messages — how the problem is framed — determines how different segments of the public will respond to calls for action. New research from the University of Minnesota, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell adds to our understanding that political ideology shapes our view of obesity. Sarah Gollust and colleagues looked at different […]

September 17, 2013 — Obesity can affect all the inhabitants of a home, not just Mom, Dad, and the kids. A recent infographic in USA Today reminds us that as the U.S. population changes, so do the pets that live with us. The infographic data comes from a survey done by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) which […]

September 16, 2013 — A recent analysis of presumptions about skipping breakfast prompted ConscienHealth to see how much those presumptions have influenced beliefs of the general public and healthcare professionals. In their analysis, David Allison and colleagues from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) found that an unproven presumption — skipping breakfast causes weight gain — has infiltrated […]

September 15, 2013 — Chipotle Mexican Grill is rolling out a big marketing campaign in which they will scarcely mention their brand name. And they have no plans to air ads on television. The message here is aimed squarely at Millennials. It’s subversive advertising against big food — delivered in internet videos, free games, and ultimately four episodes of […]

September 14, 2013 — The one percent of healthcare is the group of patients who account for 21% of total healthcare expenditures even though they are only one percent of the patients in the system. The data come from the 2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The analysis is from Statistical Brief #421 […]

September 13, 2013 — Look out for fructose is advice we’ve heard now for almost a decade since Barry Popkin and George Bray suggested that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) might be contributing to epidemic rates of obesity. In the August issue of Pediatric Obesity, Bray and Popkin acknowledge that their warning has led to a substitution of equally harmful […]

September 12, 2013 — Your response to the recent story about 10 bits of wishful thinking in obesity was impressive. It was greater than the response to anything else written to date on this page. And it brought some clarity about the flawed obesity thinking that bugs you most. The chart below summarizes your top responses. Despite your clarity, […]

September 11, 2013 — Are mainstream childhood obesity programs — like First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign — essentially ignoring kids with severe obesity? The intersection of two conflicting sets of headlines this week begs that question. The first lady was making headlines about progress against childhood obesity. In sharp contrast, the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a […]